It appears there's a challenge to Virgin Galactic, being done by a
Russian-Australian joint venture. Cute little spaceplane involved.

From AFP's article on Yahoo
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051011/sc_afp/russiaaustraliaspace_051011150829)

quote
Tue Oct 11,11:08 AM ET

MOSCOW (AFP) - Firms based in Russia and Australia are reportedly
jointly developing a system for launching small satellites from a
high-altitude airplane carrying a cheap, disposable rocket.
/quote

/dps